Capability
by xXShiningintheDarkXx
Summary: /Team7/ Series of oneshots / chapter 1-"Sumimasen! We were just joking around!" Sakura said, stepping forward with a friendly smile on. Inside, she was freaking out. They weren't from the Leaf Village. What on Earth could they be doing here? Rated T for implied violence. Enjoy! R&R! Naruto moments rewritten.


Hey guys!

This is only my third fic and it was written only in one day, so please bear with me if there are some mistakes.

This story just randomly popped into my head while watching Naruto episode 20. I was kicking Sakura at how useless she was just standing to the side, commenting on how cool Sasuke looked and BAM! This story was written. Hence the title 'Useful'!

**Note:** When Konohamaru says chest in this story, he does not mean boobs! Okay? He's not that much of a pervert in this fic.

**Disclaimer: My name doesn't start with 'M', and it's certainly not Masashi. That means I don't own Naruto!**

* * *

"Is she even a girl?!" Konohamaru yelled as he pointed at the retreating figure of red.

Hearing the comment, she stopped and turned around. The brat shouldn't have said that. No one commented on her appearance in fear of her anger. But Konohamaru didn't know her, so unlucky him.

She turned around robotically, glare in place, vein popping out of her giant forehead. A dark and menacing aura surrounded her, ominous purple strands flickering out behind her.

As she started running towards them, she felt something was off. An anxious feeling erupted in her chest, but was quickly replaced with anger at the sight of Naruto and the three annoying kids running away.

* * *

Konohamaru never felt this scared in his entire life. Never. Even when Moegi had injured herself and had to be taken to a hospital, he had never felt this scared about anything. Running faster than he ever had, he raced ahead of his two best friends and his rival-slash-mentor, trying to get away from the pink haired menace.

Closing his eyes to concentrate, he pumped his legs faster, willing himself to go quicker. He didn't notice the two figures who were walking past them.

* * *

"OW!"

Konohamaru clutched his forehead as he fell, a throbbing pain starting in his head. Looking up, he stared into a pair of bored black eyes, belonging to a face covered with purple lines.

A girl stood behind the weird looking boy, staring curiously at Konohamru on the ground. He found her quite pretty, with thick, blonde hair, a few shades darker than Naruto's, which was pulled up into four ponytails, and dark teal eyes.

"Do you need something?" the boy drawled, making Konohamaru's skin crawl. His voice was very dark and menacing. Konohamaru shuddered, waves of cold washing over his back

* * *

"KONOHAMARU!"

"Does this hurt, punk?"

The strange shinobi tightened his grip on the small boy's scarf, choking him. Konohamaru weakly batted at the shinobi's hands, but failed to ove them. An amused smirk crept on to the foreign shinobi's face, who was amused at the little boy's antics.

"Sumimasen! We were just joking around!" Sakura said, stepping forward with a friendly smile on. Inside, she was freaking out. The shinobi looked pretty scary and the kunoichi looked normal but a bit dangerous. And from the looks of them, they weren't from the Leaf Village. Their headband did not have the Leaf insignia on the metal plate, but a sand gourd. She vaguely remembered Iruka-sensei teaching them about the different villages, and how each of them had different symbols.

The blonde kunoichi looked away from the scene in front of her, focusing on a distant point somewhere beyond Konohamaru's head.

"Kankuro, let the kid go. You don't want to get into trouble do you?"

"HEY! LET GO OF HIM YOU IDIOT!"

Sakura winced as Naruto pointed accusingly at the strange ninja, trying to appear fearsome. Delivering a one-finger jab to the blonde's solar plexus, Sakura was satisfied as the loud-mouth gasped and fell to the floor, trying to regain his breath. He wheezed and wheezed on the cobblestone- paved path, rolling around o his back.

She sighed at the idiot and turned back to the two ninja. She forced a smile.

"Sumimasen. Naruto's the real idiot!" she grumbled."Now that he can't interrupt, let's talk!" she said brightly and grinned at the blonde kunoichi.

The said girl smirked back and stepped forward, holding out her hand.

"Temari, from the Hidden Sand."

Sakura grinned back at her, accepting the hand.

"Haruno Sakura, from the Hidden Leaf, obviously." she commented dryly. She worriedly looked over at the other Sand nin, and how Konohamaru seemed to be turning a pale shade of blue. She attempted to put on a nonchalant facade as she addressed Temari's companion.

"Now, could you please put him down?" she asked, who was holding Konohamaru by his extremely long blue scarf, which was choking him to death.

"Kids like these piss me off." he told her ominously, causing her to sweat drop and a fake grin to appear on her pale face.

"Yes, I assumed that. Now put down the kid, sir." she said, grin fading into seriousness.

The purple tattoos on the boy's face widened as he grinned sadistically at the pink haired kunoichi.

"The name's Kankuro, pinky."

Sakura twitched at the name he had just said.

"The name's Sakura, Kankuro-san," she replied. "Now, I will not repeat myself. Put the damn kid DOWN, NOW."

She said the sentence with so much determination and authority, that the said ninja almost did. He glared dangerously at the pink-haired ninja. He twitched when she didn't flinch under his angry stare, her green eyes determinedly staring back into his obsidian ones.

"Alright then. If you want me to."

Gathering a small part of his strength, Kankuro flung the annoying kid away, to the fence on the side of path, making sure that at the angle the kid hit the wood, he would suffer from a broken neck and a concussion, effectively killing him or making sure he could never walk again from paralysation.

Konohamaru closed his eyes as he braced for the hard impact with the cold wood.

But it never came.

* * *

His cheek rested against something that was soft, yet did not yield as the young boy leaned into it's warmth. He opened his eyes to look at a red-clothed chest. Raising his head, he was met with the sight of the girl that had tried to kill him not over a minute ago. She was glaring at the bad ninja who had been choking him, holding the little boy in a rotective embrace

The same girl protected him from a serious injury. His contempt for her changed into something better.

Admiration.

* * *

This Haruno Sakura-chan was _waaay _cooler than Naruto.

* * *

Sakura raced towards the fence and slammed against it, coming in the way of Konohamaru and the hard, wooden surface. When the small ninja-to-be slammed into her, pain flared in her chest. One of her ribs had been bruised at the force the foreign boy had thrown Konohamaru at the fence. With the strength the ninja had thrown Konohamaru at the fence, and if Sakura hadn't caught the small boy in time, Konohamaru would certainly have a broken neck.

Green eyes narrowed with distrust and anger. Was that ninja trying to _kill_ Konohamaru?

Putting Konohamaru down, Sakura turned towards Kankuro, a look of utter contempt and hatred on her usually soft and delicate features, turning them hard and dangerous. Emerald eyes flickered with green fire, nothing but hatred swirling in them for the shinobi who tried to hurt somebody from her village.

"You have no right to assault a citizen of Konoha, especially since you are not one." she spit out robotically, shifting so that she covered the bodies of the three young kids, who were practically cowering behind her in fear. Konohamaru clutched his two friends and backed away when Sakura waved a hand at them, motioning them to retreat to Naruto's twitching figure on the hard ground.

"Feh. It doesn't matter." Kankuro flipped her comment off easily, turning his back on the angry kunoichi.

"Oh really?" she said, a fake smile on her face. Kankuro looked surprised at the sickly sweet tone of the pink haired girl. Turning around, his face was greeted with a hefty punch, knocking him backwards onto his butt quite unceremoniously.

The pink haired girl stood before him, fist in front of her, a small bruise forming on her knuckles where it had connected with his jaw, a smirk darkening her pretty countenance.

"Well, that shouldn't have mattered then, ne Kankuro-san?" she said straightening up, massaging her aching fist.

Kankuro, for once, was at a loss for words as he held a hand to his cheek, where blood tricked out of a small cut.

* * *

Temari stood behind Sakura, an amused smile on her face. This Haruno Sakura had handled the situation at hand very professionally, until she decided to punch her brother.

The fan- wielding kunoichi was surprised at the guts that the emerald eyed girl showed, even though she didn't look like much. Scrawny build, thin and a head full of soft pink hair and vulnerable green eyes, this girl was quite hard to take on seriously as a shinobi.

But a newfound respect for her clawed its way through the Sand kunoichi's mind, settling there for the years to come.

After all, it wasn't everyday you saw one of the most talented ninja in the Sand village getting punched in the face by a weak kunoichi from the Leaf.

* * *

Sakura calmed down as she massaged her aching fist, walking back to Naruto who was still flailing around on the ground. and pressing his solar plexus again. He finally was able to breathe, and he looked at Sakura, offended and mistrusting.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

She closed her eyes against his verbal assault and sighed.

"Naruto, that move was just to disable you."

Sakura suddenly grinned. It looked downright feral and menacing. Naruto gulped and backed away slowly.

"If I wanted to kill you, I know of many spots on the body where I could just touch, and you would die an agonising death."

Naruto found it hard to swallow, looking into the almost mad depths of his innocent teammate's eyes. _'Where did the kind, gentle and caring Sakura-chan go?!'_

Naruto sighed inwardly.

_'__That's right, she's only like that around Sasuke-teme…"_

* * *

Kankuro stood up, furious at the blow he had suffered. Removing a kunai from his holster, he ran towards the turned back of his assailant.

**"****WHY YOU LITTLE BIT-"**

As he brought down the kunai, a hand shot out to stop him. It wasn't the pink haired girl's though. It wasn't even the stupid blonde's or his sisters. This arm was paler, more muscled. Following the arm back to its owner, he was met with a glare, directed to him from cold onyx eyes, slightly covered by raven hair.

The Sakura girl, turned around, looking at the scene before her. Her eyes crinkled, mouth widening into a genuine smile.

"Sasuke-kun!"

* * *

He raced towards Sakura, hand held out to stop the shinobi's kunai from connecting to her neck. He slammed his open palm into the tight fist of the attacker, gripping it and stopping the punch. The kunai was thrown out of the ninja's hand and clattered to the stone road. The shinobi didn't stop trying to remove his fist from the Uchiha's iron grip, pushing against the Uchiha's fist with force. Sasuke gritted his teeth and pushed his arm forward, countering the shinobi's strength.

He heard a yell from a few meters away. It had come from a blonde kunoichi. 'Kankuro! Stop it!"

Turning his head, he quickly caught Sakura's eye and then looked at the so called 'Kankuro'.

Sakura grinned, gathering momentum into her legs.

Taking off from her position, she sprinted towards the two dead-locked shinobi. Jumping slightly, she rolled over Sasuke's back. Bringing her foot to Kankuro's face, she awaited the crunch of bone underneath her sandals. The Sand ninja extracted his fist from Sasuke's hold and jumped away in a mere matter of seconds. Sakura was somewhat disappointed that he came out of the brawl majorly unscathed, despite her nature of being peaceful and kind.

Landing lightly on her feet beside the Uchiha, she found out that Kankuro had jumped away to join his sister, a few meters away from them.

* * *

Temari hated doing this, as it was quite entertaining watching her brother and the Leaf Genin fight, but Gaara was waiting for them.

Extending her arm to the large fan on her back, she opened it slightly. Willing her chakra into her signature weapon, Temari created a strong gust of wind, pushing Sakura and the raven haired ninja back, their clothes billowing around their fit frames.

Stepping forward to her brother's side, she opened the fan wider.

"Well, this has been fun," she said, grinning at Sakura."But we have to go. Someone is waiting for us."

Her mind grew anxious at the thought of Gaara alone in the Hokage's office. She and Kankuro had to hurry. They didn't want their little brother to be in a foul mood.'

Twirling her fan around, Temari vanished, taking Kankuro with her. Sakura gasped and her eyes widened at the Genin's feat. Her eyes narrowed.

_'They say they are Genin, but their abilities rival that of a beginner Jounin…..'_

Sasuke watched his teammate carefully from the corner of his eye. He knew she was shaken and the reason for her uneasiness as well. If the Chunin exam had more competitors like these Sand nin, she hardly stood a chance of becoming a Chunin.

"Well, I'm off to train." Sasuke said as he began to walk away from Sakura. For once, she stayed silent, not answering or pestering him with offers of walking him to the training field or dates. He frowned at her lack of response, mildly worried. Turning back, he contemplated the pros and cons of inviting her along. But before logic could give him the answer, he had already blurted out his sentence.

"You can come too, if you like."

Her head shot up, a look of disbelief painted across her pretty features. Sasuke fought off a blush. _'Not pretty,'_ he reprimanded himself. _'Pleasant.'_

"Of course, it's for training. Slack off, and you won't be asked to train with me ever again."

Even with the warning, Sakura smiled as she jogged to catch up with the Uchiha boy. Looking back a flabbergasted Naruto she waved and called out, "Try not to get into trouble again!"

Naruto grinned back.

"Not possible Sakura-chan! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

She let a small giggle out. Naruto, for once, was right. Looking to her right, Sasuke was staring stoically ahead, hands shoved inside his pockets. A small, amused smirk played on his face.

They walked together down the cobbled roads silently, Sakura staying a modest distance away from her stoic teammate, who was looking ahead of him, eyes never leaving the road. He noticed Sakura's lack of fan-girling and realised that her company was quite enjoyable when she didn't fawn over him. He was lost in his thoughts, and for the first time was unaware of Sakura looking at him.

Green orbs softened as she looked at Sasuke. He looked peaceful as he walked down the road, hands placed comfortably in his pockets. His bangs were slightly blowing with the breeze and flowing away from his face. His appearance contrasted heavily with the power he showed during training and missions. Realising how much distance she had to cover to catch up to him and Naruto, she vowed to train everyday. A thought crossed her mind. If he was so strong and she was so weak, wy would he consider her as a training partner? She looked at Sasuke again, voicing her thoughts.

"Why, Sasuke-kun?"

His onyx eyes met her emerald ones.

"Be more specific, Sakura."

"Why did you ask me to train with you?"

Sasuke knew that she was going to ask him this sooner or later, being the analytical kunoichi she was, but thankfully he had an answer ready.

"From the bravery you showed today, you showed me you had potential to fight, and Naruto, Kakashi and I weren't letting you. And since Naruto and I have worked together in a battle before, I wanted to train with you to get a sense of your abilities if we have to fight together in the Chunin exams."

Sakura brought a finger up to her chin, looking thoughtful. A playful grin covered her countenance.

"You know, that's the most I've ever heard you say."

He smirked slightly as the training ground came into view. Adrenaline surged into his legs and arms at the thought of throwing kunais and kicking and attacking dummies, practicing ninjutsu and taijutsu until he couldn't take the burning of his muscles anymore.

It was the life of a ninja. And Sasuke loved it.

"Come on, show me what you got." he said, looking sideways at Sakura.

She grinned at him, removing a kunai from her weapons pouch. Sasuke mirrored her movement, gripping his kunai defensively in front of him.

"You don't need to tell me twice, Sasuke-kun." And with that, she charged.

**Clang.**

* * *

Okay, first of all, I am so sorry to the people who read this before I edited. I was utterly mortified by all the errors I made. Sumimasen! Hopefully, it's a lot better now. Okay, its SasuSaku month and I have another chapter of Useful coming up. The sequel to Cookies and Sakura is going to be posted by the 14th of July. It's partlyy for SasuSaku month and for my friend's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUKI! :)

Review please, it makes me happy and gives e the mood to write! :)

**xXShiningintheDarkXx**


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